Science that has the scientific method play a greater role was much needed but did not appear until the 19th century. Natural philosophy and spirituality are much older. About 200,000 years ago there were signs of religiousness. Science is a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method. Religion is a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith. They are both a journey through what appears to be true or real to absolute truth.
Both religion and science search for knowledge; one requiring proof and the other faithfully seeking for truth. Merriam-Webster doesn’t say so, but I think we should include inspiration or revelation for both science and religion.
Both disciplines require awareness and critical thinking on the part of the person searching for truth. It’s interesting that longer evolved relatives of humans never developed the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe or the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.
Everything and everyone seem to have a certain amount of intelligence, but humans appear to have taken advantage of a head start in some other dimension before arriving here. “And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground, . . ., nevertheless, all things were before created; but spiritually were they created and made according to my word.” (Moses 3:7)
Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, but he didn’t write about the origin of life. The origin of life is still a big question. According to Dr. Ian Rickard, Durham University in the United Kingdom, “Natural selection doesn’t really care about survival.” However, we know natural selection that adapts to the environment is more likely to survive and pass on the genes that aid its success.
Maybe it isn’t natural selection but spiritual selection that does care about survival. It might be all things progress as everlasting intelligences, on to spiritual intelligences, and then entangling or over lapping with slower intelligence/spiritual elements to be formed into physical normal mass by intellectual spiritual selection. Spiritual selection could work with our gene pool and self-replicating RNA molecules organizing the evolution to DNA and proteins. That is possibly where life comes from: the progressive intelligent spirit. “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.” (Ecclesiastes 11:5)
Intelligence/spiritual selection is probably why humans preceded other creatures; as in spirituality and signs of burial 100,000 years ago. That shows empathy and kindness. Then organized religion 11,000 years ago. That’s right–organized. Humans were the only beings that started writing 5,000 years ago with religious text 4,400 years ago based on oral tradition. Then printing began 1,000 years ago. Still none of our nonhuman older relatives have reached the same proficiency to make logical connections between ideas, to remember, or to teach others.
Now we are told by the distinguished paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, “There has been no biological change in humans in 40,000 to 50,000 years. Everything we call culture and civilization we’ve built with the same body and brain.” He suggests that the human evolution has slowed because the human lineage has achieved a sufficiently large brain and has developed a sufficiently sophisticated culture.
This suggests to me that there is a Creator that has met the biological creation of physical man goal that started in a premortal (spiritual) condition. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over . . . every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26) It was already decided that humans would have dominion because of their intelligence/spiritual progression. (Also see: Abraham 4:26; Moses 2:26; 3:5; 6:8.)
This would finally explain the origin of life. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT – M. Kasey.
M. Kasey 